News in brief

30 November, 2007

This year's German harvest is estimated to be in the region of 10.5 to 11 million hectolitres. "Thanks to early budburst and optimal autumn weather, German grapes benefited from an extended growing season in 2007 followed by an unhurried harvest of several weeks," Wines of Germany said.

Landmark Wholesale is adding an extra 10 wines to its own-label New World Vintners Collection as well as transferring the entire range to screwcap. The new additions will include blends from Australia, Italy, South Africa and California and will be supported by POS kits on launch. Full-colour outers will also be introduced to the range.

Wine writer and educator Joe Fattorini has won the Institute of Masters of Wine/Yalumba scholarship for 2007. Entrants were asked to complete an essay on the Australian wine industry. As part of his prize, Fattorini will win a return trip to Australia, including time at the Yalumba winery and a chance to attend an MW education seminar in Melbourne. The scholarship is awarded yearly to students on the second year of their MW programme.

Champagne House Philipponnat has appointed agent Les Caves de Pyrène as its UK distributor.

TastingBuddy has teamed up with London wine trade fair organisers Brintex to provide an e-catalogue for the show. The wine-tasting software company will list all 30,000 wines that will be showcased at the fair. Visitors will be able to

search for wines online by various criteria and compile a personalised tasting list before the show. Information will also be available during and after the show. For more details, visit tastingbuddy.com.

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The judges met last week to sort out the winners in the independent categories of our 2018 Drinks Retailing Awards. The results are top secret until the awards dinner on February 6 but it’s giving nothing away to report that the overall standard of those that will be revealed in the shortlist of finalists in the January issue of DRN is higher than it’s ever been.